Hi all, thought it was about time I made an anatomy thread of my own. So here it is.

Thanks for all the support :thumbsup:

umbrellasky

05 May 2006, 12:26 PM

This is an acrylic painting, a copy of Lucien Freud's self portrait. This was my first attempt at a portrait using acrylics. There is a lot that could be improved but this was only meant to be a study of Lucien Freud's brushwork rather than an attempt at creating a tru likeness to his original painting.

You can find Lucien Freud's original here: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/freud/freud.reflection.jpg

SpiritDreamer

05 May 2006, 04:21 PM

Hi...Enialadam....:thumbsup:

Really like the brush work...was my fist thought, when I saw this painting....then I read what
you wrote about it....like it even more now ...not an easy thing to do, recreating that style
of brush work..:)
I think you did a GREAT job with it.....:applause:
Looking forward to seeing more of your works on here...:thumbsup:

TAKE CARE
Glenn

Rebeccak

05 May 2006, 04:54 PM

enialadam,

Great to see your Anatomy Thread go up! I love Freud, and have copied this painting before ~ you learn so much from it! Really nice job with this so far ~ I think the chest may be slightly too big for the head, but your textures and sense of form in this is really coming along great. :)

Looking forward to seeing much more work here! :)

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

umbrellasky

05 May 2006, 11:27 AM

Thanks for the support! ;)

I'm going to start an oil painting. I found a great reference here: http://www.deviantart.com/view/24000480/

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v700/enialadam/oilpainting.jpg

Rist

05 May 2006, 11:47 AM

I find acrylics tough to use, dunno why. Good jub on the portrait.

Looking forward to the Oil painting.

Rebeccak

05 May 2006, 01:56 PM

enialadam,

Very cool! The first thing I would recommend is to kill the white with burnt sienna. ;)

Looking forward to this!

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

SpiritDreamer

05 May 2006, 11:47 AM

:) Hi...Enialadam // Madalaine

REALLY glad to see you mastering OILS....the medium that can't be topped...you might try
a painting on stretched canvas...something about being able to push into it, and it's giveing or
flexing a little bit...creates magic..... feels like penetrateing space...the more pressure you
apply, the deeper into space you go...great feeling...can't be gotten with any other medium.
Becomes as pleasureable as frosting a cake after awhile..:)
LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING MORE OF THESE ...:thumbsup:

TAKE CARE
Glenn

umbrellasky

05 May 2006, 09:08 PM

Fl3wk: Thanks :D I've only ever tried oils once when I was very young :D I can't remeber what they were like. I find acrylics ok to use, although they dry very quick so it's difficult when you run out of paint and you have to try to find the same colour again.

Rebeccak: Awsome thanks for the tip! I haven't had chance to get this started yet! but I have a week of school, the usual term holidays, so hopefully I will be able to find a space somewhere in my house to get this started.

SpiritDreamer: Thanks! This one's on stretched canvas, hard to tell with the photograph. I really appreciate you stopping by :)

I made my very own sketchbook today! woot! I'm going to make a series of them with all kinds of paper.

I used cardboard for the cover, and covered the design with textured wallpaper. I love drawing on brown paper, so I bought a pack of brown envelopes haha and cut and folded them, it's not very neat :P the glue I was using wasn't very good, so had to use staples and they made the design look ugly, I will have to find out a way to make it work better:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v700/enialadam/sketchbook.jpg

I found the book binding tutorial here: http://www.wetcanvas.com/Articles2/2623/184/

Rebeccak

05 May 2006, 02:55 AM

enialadam,

Hey, this is very cool, thank you for sharing this! Ironically, I have always been terrible with anything crafty or related to crafts :D ~ so I admire anyone who can pull this off! :)

By the way, I don't know if this might be useful to you, but I just put together a few tips regarding Acrylic Painting:

One year ago I did a "try studying" (or how it must be translated). I was at the university in my hometown for 2 weeks and was allowed to try everything. I spend 2 days on doing a portfolio (well I hope this is the right word an d you get what I mean). This is really nice, I am carrying the most of my sketches in it. Your book looks really interresting, you should try to make a sketchbook ;)

I am looking forward to see some more of your work ;)

umbrellasky

05 May 2006, 09:46 PM

Thanks for the support. I'd also just like to point out that I have created an Oil Painting Tips thread here for anyone who would like to gives tips or tutorials: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?p=3595435#post3595435

Oil Painting progress:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v700/enialadam/wip2oilpainting.jpg

This is what it's looking like right now (sorry for poor quality, I'm using a digital camera):

I'm going to go into a little more detail about my progress through this. I will add more explanation about the size of the canvas and the colours I am using a little later :)

Lute

06 June 2006, 01:53 PM

............... amazing...
what made you decide to go into oil painting.....
when do we get to see your own creation....
:3

DigitalSol

06 June 2006, 09:34 PM

Wow, just love the way you are driving this thread, traditional media is something that u dont see usually around here, I like them much, and I admire you, since I discover the photoshop capabilities for painting, I havent touch a real brush, have pass like 3 or 4 years since that :sad:.

Rebeccak

06 June 2006, 10:16 PM

enialadam,

The work of a painting teacher I had in college can be seen here:

http://www.sarahbaingallery.com/turner_page.htm

Amazing brushwork in his work.

The thing I would recommend is when starting out an oil painting, to give it a good coat of burnt sienna ~ you want it to be a fairly thin coat and to be transparent, but you want it to be much darker than the fine wash you gave the canvas initially. Be sure to let this coat adequately dry a bit. You want the burnt sienna really to act as a midtone base.

Also I would recommend using a larger brush. Try describing the major / largest planes of the face first, don't go after details. Try painting several small head paintings / and knocking in the detail fairly quickly, at first working monochromatically, and then progressing through to full color work.

Cheers, :)

~Rebeccak

umbrellasky

06 June 2006, 11:50 PM

Lute: Hiya, thanks so much. Hmm I've always wanted to have a good stab at oil painting just never got round to it until now. My art tutor suggested trying a portrait, so this is it so far.
"When do we get to see your own creation", I'm not sure what you mean :)

DigitalSol: Thankyou! Lately I have fallen away from digital painting, I'm not sure why. I think I just got frustrated with my skills, I couldn't create the quality images I wanted digitally and I'm pretty sure it's because I need to work on my drawing skills. I've also been eager to try out oils :D.

Rebeccak: Hi Rebecca thanks so much for the link, very inspiring work! Thanks for the tip about burnt sienna, I think I was a little unsure about how thick a wash to apply, I should have asked! I feel silly now haha. I will make a note of it and definitly do this for my next painting.

I can become very impatient with my work, your right about using larger brushes and not jumping so quickly into details. I prefer paintings more painterly and not so detail, I'll try to hold back a little and look at the form and values more.

Thanks so much for the support!! :bounce:

Rebeccak

06 June 2006, 05:37 AM

enialadam,

No problem! One question, are you able to take any summer art classes / workshops for oil painting? A real / live Workshop will be the best route for improving your oil painting technique. Is it possible for your teachers to recommend a good Workshop for you?

Cheers, :)

~Rebeccak

umbrellasky

06 June 2006, 01:40 PM

Rebecca, I might be able to. I will ask my art tutor on monday if he knows of any. I hope there are some :D

Here's another update, this painting is taking forever! :P I'm going to have to take a break, currently working on an important assignment which needs to take up most of my time. I can work on this when I get frustrated with my other work.

I definitely like the greater variety and energy of marks you are starting to make. Sometimes it helps to have a reproduction of an artwork which inspires you nearby when you are painting. For example, somewhere I have this book:

Which is great b/c is it paperback ~ I have done several copies from this, and Freud's work is just inspiring even on just a surface level.

When thinking about colors ~ don't look at the lips and think, 'they are red', or the hair, and think that it must be 'blonde'. Think instead more in terms of value / tonal relationships, more subtly grayed hues. Sometimes it can help for colors to become a bit ~ not too ~ muddy. Also it helps to use a more limited palette at first ~ earth tones as described in the Oil Painting Tips (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=364177) thread. This forces you to think more about value than color and hence to emphasize form.

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

umbrellasky

06 June 2006, 12:49 PM

Rebecca,

Thanks so much, that's really helpful :)

I had a painting by Lucien Freud near by for this one and a painting by Jenny Saville, I like the way she blocks in with thick strokes of paint, and the colours she uses.

Whilst painting the lips I kept telling myself not to think of lips as being red it was really difficult fighting against it. The same with the hair, I was trying to bring other hues into the hair reflecting from the rest of the image, I've been focusing on the skin at the moment but will work on the hair a little more soon, and the lips.

---

Here are a couple of really quick sketches. I found the references in the thread "Beginners' Lounge" (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=297229&page=1&pp=50) (I'm going to try to join in there more often) The very bottom image of the man, I found the reference in OFDW017, image here (http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=15320):

I was trying to look at gesture, hmmm I'm not sure if these work or not...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v700/enialadam/studies1.jpg

posted the above and the below in the beginners lounge as well :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v700/enialadam/studies3.jpg

2-5-10 min studies

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v700/enialadam/studies2.jpg

Rebeccak

06 June 2006, 07:27 PM

enialadam,

Am liking that last set of 2-5-10 min. drawings especially ~ I think it's worthwhile to set a goal for these of doing a set or two a day, for a period that you determine. Try doing 25 master copies as 2-5-10 minute sets. Then after having done these, choose one and refine it further, even starting over and creating a completed master copy.

Looking forward to seeing more of these! :)

Cheers,

~Rebeccak

demented

06 June 2006, 07:41 PM

Hey enialadam

really liking your sketchbook - not just the entries/sketches but the book itself:D!. Good idea might be to get pastel pencil to create highlights like DoctorBone does - really a quick and easy way to create forms in space.

Like the last ones especially - nice free flowing lines. I often find it useful to take a line past it's destination, think it gains more energy this way - not slowing it down as it reaches it's end but taking it further.

This is one to keep tabs on - thanx for posting

cheers,

- d.

rblitz7

08 August 2006, 02:50 PM

The oil painting came out really good although the shoulders seem kind of small, and keep going with the gesture studies.:thumbsup:

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